Objections to renourishment plans dropped

COLUMBIA — A challenge to Hilton Head Plantation’s sand excavation and beach renourishment plans has been withdrawn, after the property owners’ association for the gated community amended its project.

On Thursday the oversight board for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control was scheduled to vote on whether to grant a hearing on a local resident’s objections to the permit that had been issued for the project.

The agency had received a letter on Aug. 13 from David Schofield of Hilton Head Island, who requested the hearing, detailing environmental concerns.

But on Thursday, just as one DHEC commissioner expressed an interest to give the dispute a so-called final review, officials were informed that the parties had reached a resolution. Most such appeals do not receive a hearing, meaning the board sees no reason to question the agency staff’s decision to issue a permit.

The original Aug. 8 permit that DHEC’s Office of Coastal Resource Management in Beaufort had granted Hilton Head Plantation, would have allowed for the removal of 8,000 cubic yards of sand from a 1.4 acre section of shoreline at Park Creek inlet at Pine Island. It was to be placed on a stretch of Port Royal Sound shoreline between Dolphin Point and Pine Island.

The project is intended to renourish a sand berm.The luxury community consists of 4,000 acres and is bounded by the Intracoastal Waterway and Port Royal Sound, according to its website.